Netherlands based non-professional stocktrader with a private portfolio; good at stockpicking; not good at options. I prefer companies with a good ROI, ROE, PEG-ratio, good and inspiring management, a durable competative advantage. BUY AND ACCUMULATE (B&A) is my approach. I'm in the market for the company's profit, not the stockprice in the first place.

Mid Market M&A consultant specializing in technology and energy industries. Individual Investor for over 25 years. Growth oriented investments primarily in market leaders and technology leaders. Investment philosophy is long term buy and hold with average holding time of several years.

I have a keen sense of cutting through management and Investment banker commentary and seeing true value of companies. A lot of my views tend to be controversial for that reason but at the same time remarkably accurate.

To get a feel for my writing, readers can puruse a few of my recent against the grain calls:- with extremely high success rates.

Personal Investor following most sectors but with focus on tech and further focus on communication chip companies and Internet infrastructure....although my watch list has many companies from many sectors.

I have a Mech Eng honors degree with 35 years as a petroleum engineer/onsite operations manager/finance, forecasting and metrics manager. I was also section chairperson for Society of Petroleum Engineers so have a good feel for the oil production and transport industry. 26 of those years were with Shell (mostly TEOR in CA) and the last 9 years overseas (ME) with Oxy.

I saved and invested well so retired in 2014 at age 58 and invest mainly as a hobby as I have my retirement secured.

I have written 2 dutch books on value investing: "Aandelen selecteren als waardebelegger" and "Beleggen in bull- en bearmarkten". See bol.com (search for the titles). As a mathematician (Ph.D.) I am most interested in investment strategies with statistically favorable returns. In particular I invest in net-nets (20-30% average annual returns). I find companies with low Enterprise Value/Earnings before Tax and Interest (EV/EBIT) and strong balance sheets (20% average annual returns) also very interesting. Since such stocks are rare I invest globally. Send me a message with your email address to get example articles of my premium research on Seeking Alpha.

Recent graduate from Bulls on Wall Street and a full time day trader. I have been an investor in the stock market for over 20 years. It wasn't until Stocktwits and Twitter came out that I realized I was missing the boat in the market.

I was your typical Buy and hold kind of guy and I had some fantastic wins. However, I also had some mammoth losses with that strategy. I read hundreds of books, went to investment seminars, subscribed to the Wall street Journal. IBD, Barron's and countless other financial publications. I spent thousands of hours studying and reading about the macro economy and companies I wanted to invest in. I studied company financials, read every article about them, listened to conference calls, looked into management, checked out their product or service all in the hopes of investing in the next Apple, Microsoft, Walmart, early and becoming an overnight millionaire.

Then I started following day traders on Twitter and Stocktwits and I watched these traders make some pretty impressive profits holding a stock for literally 10 minutes or an hour. I actually watched one individual make an obscene amount of money in one stock both on the way up and then on the way down in about 4 hours. The kicker for me was when he concluded his trading in that stock he asked " Hey does anyone know what that company does?" I was floored!! They were in and out in one day and holding a cash position overnight. Not having to worry about waking up the following morning to some negative Press release about one of the companies they are invested in, or the overall macro economy that sends markets or your stock plunging.

It was then that I decided to educate myself and learn this craft to become a full time trader. Now I am blessed and living my dream of making a living doing what I love as a day trader and blogging about my journey. You know you have passion for your job when you are sad that its Friday and you can't wait till Monday.

Michael Hopkins is a veteran journalist and editor, having spent 16 years in print and online media. His work includes 13 years as a managing and senior editor for various online news services operated by MediaBiz, including SkyREPORT, a top satellite industry news service.

In addition to MediaBiz, Michael has contributed articles to Light Reading, Satellite Business News and the SPECS newsletter from CableLabs, among other publications. In addition, he worked as a public relations professional with VisiTech PR, a firm focused on supporting technology clients in the United States and overseas. Michael also worked as a reporter for The Montrose Daily Press in Western Colorado.

Michael graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 1992. He presently resides in Morrison, Colo., west of Denver.